AG COMMUNICATOR INSIGHTS.

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We asked the best and brightest in agri-marketing to offer their thoughts on the future of the industry. Following are their responses.

Ag Communications -- A Bright Future for Those That Embrace Change

by Jack Odle, Vice President and Editor of Progressive Farmer

When Ben Franklin coined the phrase "in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes," he only got it two-thirds right. The other certainty is change. For agricultural communications, and I guess for everyone else, change is scary, exciting, hopeful, and daunting. It happens whether we're ready or not. It happens subtly and suddenly. It happens. It's always happening.

The point isn't whether change is good or bad - change is just. Not that many years ago we had Ma Bell and Uncle Sam to handle our communication needs.

Today we have more communication vehicles than you can count. I'm not certain that these additions have improved our communication that much. The reason I say this is that the most important part of communication has always been listening. No communication between two people happens unless you can get one person to listen. With all the noise out there -- e-mails, faxes, voice mail, cell phones, pagers, television, radio, the Internet, direct mail, magazines, etc. -- I'm not sure anyone is listening.

To me, the challenge facing ag communications is figuring out how to get folks to listen. Most people don't have time or don't take time to listen. All these new technologies designed to save us time have sped up our lives, but have they saved us time? Ask most folks and they'll say, "I'm more busy now than I've ever been." They believe they have less free time than ever before because they can never get away. There is always a cell phone, a pager, or an e-mail that tracks them down wherever they are.

Back in the horse and buggy days folks just accepted the fact that town was a half-day ride away. …

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